King's Day Evening and the Room Afterwards

Anyone who has spent the twenty-seventh of April in Amsterdam knows it is unlike any other day of the year. The whole city is out from the morning, the canals are full of boats, the streets are one long market and party, and by the evening a great many people have been celebrating for twelve hours. It is a wonderful day to be in the city. It is also, for a booking made on the way back, the evening on which the largest number of things can go wrong together.

A peak date

King's Day is one of the dates on which a deposit of half the fee applies to every booking, whatever its length and whoever makes it. The others are Pride, the Amsterdam Dance Event, the stretch from Christmas to New Year and a large conference week, each of which the house names when asked. An hour at 180 euros on King's Day evening means 90 euros ahead and 90 at the door, even for a returning guest who would normally pay everything on arrival.

The reason is simple. On a day when the whole city is out, demand for the evening is high and the chance of a booking being abandoned is higher still. A deposit protects the hour that has been held for you.

Getting around

Transport on King's Day is not the transport of an ordinary evening. Many tram routes through the centre are diverted or suspended during the day, streets are closed to traffic, and the crowds make walking slow in the areas where the celebrations are thickest. By the evening it improves, but it is still slower than usual, and taxis are scarce.

Plan the journey back as a walk, and a slow one. A route that takes fifteen minutes on an ordinary evening can take thirty on King's Day. Name an hour in the thread rather than asking for the next available one, and set it with room to spare.

Book early in the day

This is the one evening of the year when writing in the morning makes sense even for a guest who normally books on the way back. Therapists who keep evening hours are asked for early on King's Day, and a guest who writes at seven in the evening for an hour at ten may find that the woman he had in mind is already booked. Writing at midday with a named hour gives the widest choice. It also means the deposit is settled while you still have a steady hand and a charged phone.

Twelve hours of celebration

The other thing about King's Day is that it is long. Guests who have been out since the morning are, by ten at night, tired, sunburnt or rained on, and often have had more to drink than on a normal evening. That is the day. It is also worth being honest about.

She decides what a session includes and may end a visit where a guest is in no state to listen, with the fee for the reserved time still due. A guest who wants his King's Day evening to end well in the room should slow down on the drinks by the late afternoon, eat properly, and give himself an hour back at the room before she arrives rather than ten minutes. If, by early evening, it is clear the day has gone further than planned, the right thing is to cancel before she sets out. The guide to courtesy after a few drinks covers the rule and the arithmetic.

An orange room

Take the orange off before she arrives. It sounds trivial, but a day of celebration leaves its traces: face paint, a sticky shirt, glitter in your hair, a crown made of cardboard. A long shower, fresh clothes or a robe, and a glass of water turn a festival guest back into a hotel guest.

The rest of the peak dates

Everything above applies in some form to the other peak dates too. Pride in early August brings the canal parade and a city full of visitors. The Amsterdam Dance Event in October fills every club until the morning. The stretch from Christmas to New Year has its own crowds and its own fireworks. On each of those dates a deposit applies, transport is slower, and booking earlier in the day gives the widest choice of who is free.

The booking terms list the peak dates and what a deposit on one means for a cancellation, and the guide to the going-out districts gives walking times from the main squares.